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Leeds United

Premier League
Game 35: Tuesday 22 April 2003

Leeds United 2 - 0 Fulham
(Half-time: 1 - 0)
Crowd: 37220
Referee: N Barry (Scunthorpe)
Fulham
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Match Facts
Leeds United Team Fulham
Paul Robinson   Maik Taylor
Danny Mills   Steve Finnan
Gary Kelly   Martin Djétou Subbed - 10 minutes
Ian Harte   Jon Harley
Michael Duberry   Andy Melville
Dominic Matteo   Sylvain Legwinski
Eirik Bakke   Sean Davis
Jason Wilcox   Lee Clark
Harry Kewell   Junichi Inamoto Subbed - 45 minutes
Alan Smith   Luis Boa Morte Booked - 23 minutes
Goal - 4 minutes Goal - 49 minutes Mark Viduka   Elvis Hammond
Subs
Nigel Martyn   Martin Herrera
Matthew Kilgallon   Zat Knight Sub - 10 minutes
Raúl Bravo   John Collins
Nick Barmby   Barry Hayles Booked - 54 minutes Sub - 45 minutes
Simon Johnson   Facundo Sava
Match Reports
Nick Allen vs Fulham
BBC Viduka sends Fulham crashing
The Guardian Viduka answers Reid's call
The Independent Viduka double pushes Leeds towards safety
SkySports.com Viduka double keeps Leeds out of trouble
The Sporting Life Leeds United 2 - 0 Fulham
The Electronic Telegraph Viduka calms Leeds' nerves
The Times Viduka times run to perfection for Leeds
Yorkshire Evening Post Viduka edges United to safety

The Times, Sunday Times and Telegraph now seem to require registration to view articles on their sites, with the Times and Sunday Times charging readers outside the UK. The Times/Sunday Times has also moved some of the older articles into an archive which requires separate registration and requires you to pay to access the content. The Independent now charges for access to articles more than a week old.


vs Fulham - Nick Allen

Well we've hit that mythical 40 points hurdle that all managers say is the first target for the season and its only taken us 35 games to do it.

To be fair we were never pushed by a very ordinary - in fact bloody awful - Fulham who didn't manage a shot on target all game. We started like a fair amount of rockets had been put up a fair number of arses following the game at the weekend. The centre of defence was well organised with Matteo being back in there and it seemed to lift Duberry who had a pretty comfortable game alongside him - including that spectacular 70 yard dash to nowhere.

Kelly, Bakke and Wilcox were flying into tackles with reckless abandon - God knows how Jason avoided a booking for any one of about 4 awful challenges. Kelly was inspirational - covering all corners of the pitch, he was often the furthest forward pressurising the keeper as well as making last ditch tackles in the box. His distribution was pretty good which cannot be said of Mills, Wilcox, Bakke, Harte, Smith or Duberry.

Kewell and Viduka were far too good for the Fulham defence who brought on the huge 6ft 6in and marvellously named Zat Knight, a few moments after we had scored from a 4th minute corner. Viduka with a 4 yards circle of space around him in the box (did he breathe out?) bulleted a header into the top corner from a Kelly corner. That helped settle the crowd and the players.

We could have had more goals in the first half from Wilcox, Bakke, Smith and Kewell - as well as Viduka - all missed presentable chances - the same happened in the second half where Kewell hit the post after a marvellous run. Viduka's 2nd goal followed Kewell being put through by Viduka he bundled past two men in the box and put his shot against the advancing keeper - the ball rebounded to the edge where Viduka walloped it home. After all these years Viduka has finally proved that arriving in the box several minutes late is actually the right thing to do. You can't deny it without Viduka's current burst of goals - 12 in 7 is it? - we'd have been sunk.

Mills was mainly awful last night except for a burst of 10 minutes towards the end of the second half where he suddenly became the maurauding full back charging down the line that we all know and love! Harte was OK mainly due to Fulham's v kind tactic of trying to play the high ball out in Inamoto on the wing and Harte was comfortably the winner in that battle.

Now for the Greek Philosophy bit:

Will a win on Saturday secure Reid's position as the manager for next season? And if so will it be a Pyrrhic victory?


Viduka answers Reid's call - Michael Walker

Copy from Football Unlimited of 22/04/2003.

Leeds United have spent a lot of time this season living on the edge. But they took a major stride back from the precipice of relegation last night.

Two goals from Mark Viduka, his 18th and 19th of the season, lifted Leeds two places to 15th in the Premiership - above Fulham on goal difference - and, though the drop is still a mathematical possibility, Peter Reid has all but completed the task set by Peter Ridsdale a month ago.

Leeds have won two of the five games Reid has overseen and drawn one and, if their form remains erratic, Reid's record compares favourably with the last eight games of the Terry Venables era, which yielded four points from 24.

Read the rest...



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